io6 BACTERIA AND SOIL FERTILITY 



mysterious chemical forces of its body I was made to form part 

 of its bone. The great beast was slaughtered by men, and his 

 flesh eaten, and his bones burnt to a fine white dust in a furnace. 

 Out of this dust, I, the tiny phosphorus atom, was distilled in a 

 furnace and found my way to a match factory and am now in 

 this little match-box lying on the table before you. Is my jour- 

 ney finished? Oh dear no, far from it. I shall go on changing 

 and journeying and dancing, age after age, even until the world 

 fades away like a mist, and long after all that you see and hear 

 around you has crumbled away and vanished into the awful maw 

 of time. I have been taking part in the great dance of atoms 

 which forms the basis of all passing things and events, for mil- 

 lions and millions of years to come. I may, indeed, see this world 

 perish, and may yet dance in worlds as yet unborn. My future 

 will be probably even more strange than my past." 



